1 - Introduction

Summary

Chapter One outlines the contours of my argument, that an interdisciplinary non-positivist method of approaching Persian local histories written during the 10th – early 15th centuries uncovers how these Persian-Muslim individuals and communities understood and expressed their hybrid identities, perched on the fringes and peripheries of the Islamic empire. Oft-neglected portions of city and regional histories, such as accounts of dreams, myths, local notables, and improbable etymologies expresses profound truths about the people who wrote the histories and the times in which they lived. Chapter One also explains how histories produced in another notable periphery, Anatolia, flesh out a comparative perspective. Comparing Persia and Anatolia identifies how early medieval local histories from the peripheries framed and presented what constituted authority to rule, legitimacy as a Muslim, and legitimacy as political and religious communities with distinct practices and identities who nevertheless had an integral role in the broader umma.